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DISEASE REDUCTION. "Our results extend the long-standing view of ants as mutualists and protectors of aphids by demonstrating focused sanitizing and quarantining behaviour that may lead to reduced disease transmission in aphid colonies." http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/11/16/rsbl.2009.0743.short View in LinkedIn

DISEASE REDUCTION. "Our results extend the long-standing view of ants as mutualists and protectors of aphids by demonstrating focused sanitizing and quarantining behaviour that may lead to reduced disease transmission in aphid colonies." http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/11/16/rsbl.2009.0743.short View in LinkedIn

HYGIENIC GROOMING. "The bodies of fungal-killed aphids were quickly removed from ant-tended aphid colonies. Ant workers were also able to detect infective conidia on the cuticle of living aphids and responded by either removing or grooming these aphids." http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/11/16/rsbl.2009.0743.short View in LinkedIn

WINTER CARETAKING. "Although most ant–aphid trophobiotic associations are facultative, some ant species bring aphids or even aphid eggs into their nests in winter, ensuring the continuity of the relationship." https://lnkd.in/d9truvs View in LinkedIn

CONTROLLING THE HERD. "We believe that ants could use the tranquillising chemicals in their footprints to maintain a populous 'farm' of aphids close their colony, to provide honeydew on tap. Ants have even been known to occasionally eat some of the aphids themselves, so subduing them in this way is obviously a great way to keep renewable honeydew and prey easily available." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.htm View in LinkedIn

HOBBLING THE COWS. "The ants have been known to bite the wings off the aphids in order to stop them from getting away and depriving the ants of one of their staple foods: the sugar-rich sticky honeydew which is excreted by aphids when they eat plants. Chemicals produced in the glands of ants can also sabotage the growth of aphid wings." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.htm View in LinkedIn

FAST DIVERSIFICATION. “These results are consistent with the repeat insertion domains of LncRNAs hypothesis under which TEs have substantially contributed to the origin, evolution, and, in particular, fast functional diversification, of lincRNA genes.” (lincRNA = Long intergenic non-coding RNA); (TE = transposable elements). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn

SINGLE CLONAL FARMS. "Ants farm subterranean aphids...had considerable clonal diversity at the population level. Yet more than half of the ant mounds contained just a single aphid species, a significantly higher percentage than expected from a random distribution. Over 60% of these single-species mounds had a single aphid clone, and clones tended to persist across subsequent years." https://lnkd.in/dShsfQM View in LinkedIn

PREFERENTIAL. “A significant positive correlation was detected between the content of TEs and evolutionary rate of lincRNAs indicating that inserted TEs are preferentially fixed in fast-evolving lincRNA genes.” (lincRNA = Long intergenic non-coding RNA); (TE = transposable elements). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn

BACTERIAL VOLATILES. "Honeydew volatiles, mostly from bacterial origins, are known to be a key element in ant attraction...The relative attractiveness of volatiles emitted by honeydews collected from each aphid species and by bacteria isolated from each honeydew was in investigated. Again, ants significantly preferred volatiles released by Aphis fabae honeydew and bacteria. This information suggests that microbial honeydew volatiles enable ants to distantly discriminate aphid species." https://lnkd.in/dA6GrhP View in LinkedIn